Sunday, December 27, 2009

Part 5

Results of recent research into descendants of Charles Grant in the Sydney - Glace Bay area of Nova Scotia

Part V

Douglass L. Grant

Further to the age of Edward and William:

In the 1881 census, taken in April, Edward (then living in Dartmouth) declares his age to be 31. When he died in March of 1927, his obituary indicates he would have been 78 in May, consistent with birth in May of 1849. However, in 1901, William declared his birthdate to be October 5, 1849. Had that been his birthdate, it would have been virtually impossible, for biological reasons, for Edward to have been born of the same mother in May of either 1849 or 1850. Given Edward's higher level of education and the tendency of males, looking for jobs as miners, labourers, etc. to exaggerate their age by a few years, this researcher now believes Edward to have been the oldest child, and William second to him, most probably born in October of 1850 or possibly 1851.

Had Edward been born in May of 1849, he would have been almost exactly three years old when William E. Grant, eldest son of John H. Grant and Margaret Ann Moore, was drowned at the age of 26 in the spring of 1852, while a divinity student at Acadia University. It is possible that this tragedy had a deep impression on the child, perhaps resulting in a vocation for the ministry. It is also possible that he was groomed for the ministry from an early age, as a replacement for his lost cousin.

Martha Grant French, rediscovered at last:

The United States Census of 1910 for Stockton Springs, Waldo County, Maine (which included the village of Sandy Point), lists a family which consisted of Charles A. French, 51, born Maine, marine engineer; Martha A., 46, born in English Canada, not a naturalized U. S. citizen; and Mary F., 71, widowed mother of Charles. The couple had been married 20 years, but the number of children born to Martha is given as zero. Given her age at the time, it is also extremely unlikely that there are any descendants to locate.

After putting an inquiry on the mailing list for the genealogical society of Waldo County, Maine, I received further information from two very kind and helpful people, Kitty McLaughlin and Bob Brooks. They confirmed that Martha's maiden name had been given as Grant in a local directory. She and her husband are both buried in the Sandy Point Cemetery, although Martha's name on the headstone is mistakenly given as "Margaret" and no date of death is engraved. Bob Brooks then provided the truly extraordinary service of looking up the death records of both people in Belfast, Maine, and Martha's husband's will. This revealed that her husband's middle name was Austin, and that he was the son of Francis L. and Mary French. He died 29 December 1923, leaving everything to Martha. Martha died 11 April 1949 at the age of 84 of cardiac failure. Her birth name is given, her birth date 15 September 1864, her place of birth as Cape Breton, and her parents' names as John Grant and Maria Griftson, the last an apparent misunderstanding of "Jefferson". Despite that final discrepancy, there seems no room for doubt that this is one of the missing sisters of the "five brothers". What remains surprising is that there seems no living recollection of her death in 1949; it is possible that she had completely lost touch with the many nieces and nephews who remained in this area.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Bob and Kitty for their truly outstanding help with this research. This line of investigation is now closed, but the search for her siblings Caroline, Milford and Alexander goes on.

Margaret Mackenzie Grant (a less than happy ending):

Repeated unsuccessful efforts had been made to find the date of death of Margaret MacKenzie Grant, the daughter of Scottish immigrants Malcolm and Jessie MacKenzie, the widow of William Grant, and the author's great-grandmother. Finally, an old hospital record was found which revealed that she passed away 18 January 1933 at the institution later known as the Cape Breton Hospital, then known less euphemistically as the Cape Breton Asylum for the Harmless Insane, where she had been a patient since the preceding May. Her age on admission is given as 85, which would place her birth date in 1847, a date not hugely discrepant with the birthdate of 14 August 1849 given in the 1901 census. The only living person whom the author has found who remembers her is William C. Grant of Sydney, son of John Edward Grant, and grandson of William and Margaret. He describes an elderly lady beset with the symptoms of what we would now recognize as Alzheimer's Disease, very hard of hearing, and prone to wandering. On one occasion, he relates, she walked a considerable distance out the East Bay Highway from their home on Rockdale Avenue. The hospital records describe her as delusional, as well, detailing her references to her great wealth and to the great size of her herd of cows. One cannot write of this situation without the utmost compassion for her eldest son John Edward, forced, at the depths of the Depression, to the stark realization that his mother's infirmities of age had transcended his ability to care for her. Of course, this took place in an era when few options were available for care of the elderly. Given the aversion to any form of mental illness so widespread in the middle of the twentieth century, it appears that the circumstances of her death were withheld from most of her grandchildren. The records also give reassurance that her body was claimed, but are silent as to the location of her grave. So is the obituary which appeared the following day in the Post-Record. While it is likely that she was interred with her husband, that location remains undiscovered. Therefore, the search for the gravesite goes on, with much more precise information as to the date and location of her death.

Descendants of Ann Grant, daughter of the pioneer Charles Grant:

This section is based almost entirely on the work of the late Elva Jackson, whose card catalogue in the Beaton Institute has proven invaluable on numerous occasions. Since it details a descent through the female line, few people discussed herein have the surname Grant. However, this recitation contains details of many large families (Musgrave, Moffatt, Johnstone, Moore, and others), and it is arguable that the descendants of Ann Grant are more numerous, both in Cape Breton and in many other places in North America, than any other line discussed up to this point. It is difficult to present this amount of information and keep up a uniform level of interest throughout. My apologies if this section is rather dry; I have not yet checked many of Elva's facts, and have been able to catch only one apparent error, which is noted below.

Where an individual is listed once among the children (I prefer this term to "issue" or "offspring") of his or her parents, and again as a parent of children of his or her own, the first appearance of that individual's name will be followed by the signpost "[family below]". Where a burial site is known for a deceased person (usually Lakeside Cemetery on the Northside), it will be given in italics after the first occurance of the name. This information is derived from on-line sources, usually the Cemetery List for Cape Breton County accessible through the Nova Scotia Genweb site; I have not visited any of these gravesites personally.

Ann Grant was born in Sydney 16 January 1786, the daughter of the pioneer Charles Grant and Nancy Gordon. On 1 October 1805, she married Peter Musgrave, the son of the pioneer Bartholomew Musgrave, who was born in New York City on 15 March 1783, and Anne Sparling. (Peter Musgrave's sister Sarah, b. 31 July 1792, married Ann's brother Peter Grant, from whom nearly all the lines in the Glace Bay / Dominion area are descended.) Peter Musgrave died 1 August 1866 and Ann 12 May 1876, both at Upper North Sydney.

{In the 1871 census, Thomas Moore, orphan son of Benjamin Moore and Susan Musgrave, was living at Little Bras d'Or with his maternal aunt Ann Alice Musgrave, her husband Thomas Francis Moffatt, and their daughter Mary.}

{Grace Munn's obituary in 1978 mentions five nieces and three nephews, but does not provide any names or details as to their parentage. Elva Jackson's file provides information on the children of Charles A. Munn only.}